Tanko Mohammed
Unity Bank has announced an asset base of N492.02 billion for the financial year ended Dec. 31, 2020.
The bank in its audited result released by the Nigerian Exchange Ltd., said its total assets rose by 67.90 per cent when compared with N293.05 billion achieved in the comparative period of 2019.
The bank’s customer deposit portfolio grew by 34.4 per cent to N356.62 billion, up from N257.69 billion posted in the corresponding period of 2019.
The bank posted gross earnings of N42.71 billion compared with N44.59 billion recorded in the comparative period of 2019.
Profit after tax stood at N2.09 billion, while profit before tax closed at N2.22 billion during the year under review.
Its net operating income rose to N25.46 billion from N23.21 billion in the corresponding period of 2019, representing a 9.71 per cent increase.
This is even as the net interest income recorded a significant jump, as it rose by 7.60 per cent to N17.75 billion from N16.49 billion in the corresponding period of 2019.
The bank’s gross loans portfolio increased by 92.9 per cent to N206.2 billion in the review period, from N106.9 billion in 2019.
The Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of the bank, Mrs Tomi Somefun, said the results showed the resilience during times of uncertainties and ability to focus on key balance sheet items to maintain growth trajectory.
“Consequently, for the year under review, the opportunities to create more quality assets for the business, thought to have sustainable impact, informed part of choices made.
“And we have seen some encouraging market uptake in this regard, apart from the benefits to the enterprise bottom-line that have also started trickling in.
“The bank deployed new products and augmentation supported by omni-channel, USSD promotions and other channels to enhance service delivery efficiency, drive income generation capacities and enhance steady balance sheet growth,” Somefun said.
She said the bank would latch on targeted strategies to deploy significant investment in technology in order to ride the waves of the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to him, the bank will focus on achieving major efficiency gains, deepening its retail footprints and penetrating identified cluster market segments, to tap into various youth markets.
“The bank is also looking to consolidate the gains from its core business areas and niche in the agribusiness sector. The bank has solidly financed over one million farmers over the past three years.
“These farmers cut across several primary crop production such as rice, maize, cotton, wheat, sorghum, etc coupled with their rich value chains.
“We hope to continue to expand on this as we play our part in driving the country’s quest for self-sufficiency in food production,” she added.
Similarly, Mr Usman Abdulqadir, Unity Bank, Executive Director, said the bank would change the narrative in the agriculture sector by focusing on younger farmers.
Abdulqadir said the bank would focus on younger farmers below 40 years with better knowledge of technology and best practices to boost yields.
He said the bank wanted to make the younger generation interested in agriculture, noting that 65 per cent of the nation’s population was within 18 and 35 years.
